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In Guy De Maupassant's short story "The Necklace", the main character, Mathilde Loisel, makes several ironic discoveries. These discoveries form the story's climax and produce a surprising ending. However, the central discovery of the story, that the jewel is fake, is, perhaps, not the most important point of the story. The point of the story is that pride goes before a fall. In the opening paragraph of the story, the author immediately tells us Mathilde …

…played a cruel trick on her and she has suffered ten long years for nothing. The advice Maupassant seems to give in "The Necklace" is "Don't get aspire for more then you have, it will ruin you." and he gives Mathilde as his example. We see that Mathilde's misfortunate can be easily avoided. However, she does not. This makes us come to know how excess pride and vanity can turns out to be a nightmare.